Premier High School Football Team Forfeits Games Amid Investigation into Hazing Allegations
Source: NBC4 New York
The Middlesex County Prosecutor (New Jersey) said it's investigating a report that seniors on the team hazed freshmen in various forms, some of which could be considered sexual assault. School officials declined to discuss details of the allegations, citing an ongoing investigation by police and prosecutors, saying only in a statement they were "significant" and "if true, would indicate that inappropriate conduct of a very serious nature had taken place within the high school football program." <snip>
Meanwhile, police are also investigating assistant football coach Charlie Garcia, 38, after they found more than two boxes of steroids and more than a dozen syringes during a traffic stop late last month.
* video re: Sayreville High School football team story at link *
Read more: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Sayreville-High-School-Football-Team-Forfeits-Games-Hazing-Allegations-Investigation-278075221.html
'Sexual acts too graphic to describe' noted in the video. The school system rep in the video responded to parents' pressure to allow games to continue now:
"The safety and welfare of our students, particularly the students on that football team come FIRST.... BEFORE a football game."
Glad someone said it.
____________
UPDATE - Oct 7, Tuesday Morning: Sayreville High School Football Season Canceled
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Further, I would tax professional sports to the greatest possible level.
No argument in their favor can be made. There's no such thing as sportsmanship or fairness.
It's a fucking joke and fans should check themselves and their values.
WTF?
joeglow3
(6,228 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)joeglow3
(6,228 posts)broadcaster75201
(387 posts)nt
valerief
(53,235 posts)from these with less risk of head injury.
hack89
(39,171 posts)it has been nothing but a positive experience for him.
joeglow3
(6,228 posts)NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)I want shop classes and art classes and science to be sacred.
Parents who want their kids in sports can damn well do it on their own dime and after fucking school.
joeglow3
(6,228 posts)gopiscrap
(23,674 posts)Oktober
(1,488 posts)See who can give the best compliment on a smile!
Aggression has its place in society and all these attempts to weed it out are killing us.
joeglow3
(6,228 posts)Oktober
(1,488 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)I dug these up in 90 seconds:
http://www.athleticbusiness.com/sportsmanship/lawsuit-girls-kicked-off-team-over-hazing-complaints.html
http://ktla.com/2013/03/08/high-school-softball-coach-facing-hazing-allegations-stefan-chase-reports/
http://www.wcpo.com/news/six-kings-high-school-softball-players-suspended-after-hazing-incident
http://deadspin.com/5215012/wait-so-now-naked-softball-hazing-is-a-bad-thing
http://www.aol.com/article/2014/08/27/girl-says-h-s-band-hazing-ritual-was-terrifying/20953327/
http://www.presstelegram.com/social-affairs/20140827/downey-students-allegedly-forced-to-twerk-hazed-at-band-camp
http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/Mosley-High-Band-Members-Suspended-After-Alleged-Hazing-224649731.html
http://espn.go.com/otl/hazing/list.html
http://reachforthewall.com/2010/12/15/robinson-coaches-fired-after-hazing-incident/
http://patch.com/ohio/solon/solon-high-swimmers-suspended-for-hazing-incident#.VDSWmfldXEc
FWIW, in many communities, the band hazing is harsher that the other sports combined....
yurbud
(39,405 posts)Non-fans were actually more likely to exercise and live an active lifestyle themselves.
While watching sports, fans release the same hormones players actually on the field do.
Non-fans watching have the same reaction they do the weather channel.
I can understand PLAYING almost any sport.
I can't understand getting off on watching most of them, or tying up your identity or sense of masculinity in particular with who you watch play while you sit on your ass.
Response to NYC_SKP (Reply #1)
Oktober This message was self-deleted by its author.
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)something so ugly and that some didn't have the character to stand up to the coaches. Here's hoping they clean house and get it right.
al bupp
(2,164 posts)From: Eric Dixon Reports
Gutlessness comes in many forms. In its most pernicious form, it is disguised as compassion or equality or something else sounding benign in order to cover up its true intent or effect.
This is my view, admittedly cynical, on the decision by Sayreville (N.J.) High School administrators to cancel the football seasons of each of its football squads in response to allegations and preliminary findings of bullying.
Before you continue, understand that in no way am I condoning or minimizing the hazards of bullying. Read this column carefully. My criticisms of the school administrators should never be taken as an endorsement of the behavior they are attacking. I do question the stated motives that are being voiced.
As you'll see in this article, the primary stated objective is to "take a stand against bullying."
Now, as an experienced attorney and an investigative attorney at that, I am naturally inquisitive and play my investigative cards close to the vest. Even when I publicly speculate on something, I hold something back. Anyone who is certain they know what I am thinking, especially when I comment publicly in the news media, is only very certainly an ignorant person. (You have questions? Come to the source -- me.) What I can reveal about my suspicions is this:
More at: http://www.ericdixonlaw.com/2014/10/sayreville-high-school-cancels-football.html
IMHO, this is a valid criticism of the administration's response to this scandal.
NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)What the fuck is wrong with us for NOT promoting education and arts and sciences???
joeglow3
(6,228 posts)Brickbat
(19,339 posts)to perform. It's like that at a lot of smaller schools.
joeglow3
(6,228 posts)Brickbat
(19,339 posts)There are models for doing it right. It takes work, but it can be done.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)At a minimum, we should do like they do in Britain and separate sports from schools.
joeglow3
(6,228 posts)NYC_SKP
(68,644 posts)Not particularly fond of bully parents or internet bullies, either.
We would do well to fund education and defund bullying.
joeglow3
(6,228 posts)What a simplistic, ignorant view.
Response to joeglow3 (Reply #22)
radicalliberal This message was self-deleted by its author.
hack89
(39,171 posts)in addition to vibrant arts and science programs. Why do you think they are mutually exclusive?
gladium et scutum
(803 posts)Isn't the 6 or 7 hours a day spent at school prior to football practice devoted to education and arts and sciences?
gopiscrap
(23,674 posts)yurbud
(39,405 posts)They need to find out how much this was the result of lax supervision or even encouraged by the coaching staff.
No one's kids should be under those coaches supervision until their role is clarified or they are fired.
KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)When stuff like this and what happened at Mepham, Big Red and Penn State come to light you have to wonder what insular bubble of insanity gets created in some of these football programs:
Mepham HS
No one reported the incident to any of the coaching staff. The victims were threatened with further violence if they repeated anything.
More than a week after camp had ended, two of the players required medical treatment; the anus of one player had been so severely injured that surgery was required. Initially, the boy's mother complained to the principal, John Didden. He told her to call the police herself.
http://everything2.com/title/Mepham+Hazing+Incident
To call any of this simply hazing or "horse play" or "bullying" is to avoid the legal terms that were eventually applied in the Mepham crimes:
Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse
Aggravated Assault
Kidnapping
Unlawful Restraint
False Imprisonment
Terroristic Threats
Criminal Coercion
Simple Assault
Reckless Endangering of Another Person
Ethnic Intimidation (a hate-crime charge arising from the fact that the victims were required to insult Afro-American teammates or face additional assaults)
Criminal Conspiracy
Sad to see the season cancelled for those who just wanted to play football but the dumbed down group-think that enables these physical and sexual crimes is way way out of hand. Hopefully bringing these problems to light can help end them and save football.
radicalliberal
(907 posts)Dishonorable or even criminal conduct on the part of individual players away from the game is not considered by many of the fans to be much of a problem. What is a big deal to them and takes precedence over virtually everything else is having a winning season. "Winning is everything."
What's also truly sad is that these scandals will not decrease in frequency, which means that the traumatization will continue to occur with no letup. Victims of these crimes will receive next to no justice. First, the victims are victimized by the perps. Then they're victimized by many of the fans and boosters, who have no sympathy for them. Who does?
Seems to me the only solution is moral leadership by the coaches, not to mention the principals of the schools. No doubt moral leadership is provided at some schools. But I'm pessimistic about the possibility of the culture being reformed so these scandals don't occur in the first place. My sympathy lies with the victims, both those in the future as well as those in the present and the past.
gopiscrap
(23,674 posts)belligerent, capitalistic society. At the high school level it's all about winning, at the professional level it's all about money. Fuck the victims as long as money and success is there. Competative sports such as this at this level needs to end.
CANDO
(2,068 posts)So it isn't that people such as Jerry Sandusky are evil sexual predators, it's that the important ingredient of football is exposed as the culprit. Wow, who knew? Well shit, let's just end high school education altogether, what with all the teacher on student sex crimes as of late. It can't be that predators are predators, it's the activity they choose to further their predation that must be curtailed or ended.
shenmue
(38,501 posts)It's a book about hockey players abused by their coaches. Very frightening, and true story. I am sure the same thing goes on in other sports, player to player as well as coach to player.
gopiscrap
(23,674 posts)and replace it with the arts and you would have a much tamer and intelligent society
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Oktober
(1,488 posts)Bunch of sheep who never took a hit in their life?
Cant see anything going wrong there...
That sentence is more revealing than I think you meant it to be.
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)The coaching sets the rules and what's acceptable for the team. The coach sets the culture and establishes discipline. It sounds like a number of these players were out of control....and its been out of control for awhile.
When police are being called in to investigate abuse and hazing and your assistant coach is arrested for steroids.....yeah, I'd say your season is over.
rocktivity
(44,555 posts)Last edited Tue Jun 18, 2019, 03:57 PM - Edit history (4)
and that there are senior players who looked at it as merely part of a ritual (or were part of it when THEY were freshmen).
Were the victims' clothing removed, or did the perps lay in wait until they were in the appropriate state of undress? Not that it matters -- if penetration of the rectum was accomplished, the perps met the federal definition of rape, not to mention being accomplices to it.
rocktivity
Stuart G
(38,359 posts)roamer65
(36,739 posts)The safety of kids is more important than a stupid game.
I have no sympathy for those who were whining about this decision.
rocktivity
(44,555 posts)Last edited Tue Mar 5, 2019, 03:14 PM - Edit history (3)
This disturbing hazing within the storied Sayreville football program, as told to NJ Advance Media on Wednesday by the parent of a player in the program, happened almost every day in the locker room this fall, he said. The allegations for the first time provide details to the events that sparked a criminal investigation by local and county police, and prompted the cancellation of the remainder of the Sayreville football season this week by Superintendent of Schools Richard Labbe.
Madeline Thillet, speaking at Tuesday nights board of education meeting, said her son was one of the members of the team interviewed by investigators. She downplayed the hazing while protesting the cancellation of the season. I was at the police station with him when they were questioning him, she said. They were talking about a butt being grabbed. Thats about it. No one was hurt. No one died. I dont understand why theyre being punished. I think that the forfeited game was punishment enough.
Fingers in rectums fit the legal definition of rape that the DOJ established two and a half years ago:
Justice.gov: The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.
Keeping the students safe is important, of course -- but so is holding them accountable. It is their actions (including their toleration of them) that have ultimately led to their not only losing their football season, but to disgracing their teammates, coaches, school, families, and community. However, I don't see anything happening to the perps legally unless there's a major snitching epidemic.
Here's hoping that the family of the parent who came forward doesn't get torch-and-pitchforked out of town. And I hope Mrs. Thillet hasn't sealed her son's fate -- the others may decide to gang up and blame the whole thing on him.
rocktivity
P.S. New Jersey rock legend Jon Bon Jovi, who recently tried to buy a piece of an NFL football team, is a Sayreville War Memorial alumnus.
yurbud
(39,405 posts)Because they are succeeding.